Cyberbullying bill’s online monitoring powers concern privacy czar

OTTAWA – Canada’s new privacy czar says the Conservative government’s cyberbullying bill would make too much information about Internet users more easily available to authorities.

Testifying at the House of Commons justice committee, Daniel Therrien is again urging the government to split the bill in two to allow for thorough examination of those measures that would expand online monitoring.

Civil libertarians say the cyberbullying bill will erode Internet privacy and make it easier for government to spy on the activities of law-abiding Canadians.

The legislation would make it illegal to distribute “intimate images” without consent and remove barriers to getting such pictures scrubbed from the Internet.

The bill also overhauls the existing system of production orders and warrants, and would give police new tools to track and trace telecommunications to determine their origin or destination.

Therrien says the new surveillance measures deserve very close scrutiny and would benefit from a targeted review.

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